How to Read Literature Like a Professor Chapter 20 So Does Season… By: Bryce Holmes 3 rd Period September 28, 2011

Emotions….. Foster compares the seasons with emotions. The author describes summer as a time to have fun and is not a stressful time in the year. In the summertime you have nothing to do and you are on a vacation. He describes Winter as a time that you are worried, angry, and stressed out. In the winter you are worried and angry because you have homework, tests to study for, and deadlines to meet. Foster says, “ ‘ Summer is passion and love; winter is anger and hatred’ ” (Foster 177).

The Sonnet….. Foster expresses his passion for Robert Frost’s sonnet. The author says, “ ‘First, it just sounds wonderful-say it out loud a couple of times and you’ll start to hear how the words play off each other’ ” (Foster 175). He is expressing how much he likes this poem. This poem makes Foster feel good, it relaxes him, and it allows him to open up his feelings.

Henry James….. The author, Foster, introduces a person named Henry James and says to the reader that Henry needs to stop writing about things that have no emotion and that are boring. Foster then tells the reader that Henry has come up with something good. He says the story that Henry wrote has something to with seasons. Foster says, “ ‘He must overcome an initial problem: nobody wants to read about geopolitical entities in conflict’ ” (Foster 177). Foster also says, “ ‘So he needs people, and he comes up with a pair of real beauties’ ” (Foster 177).

Henry James Continued….. James writes a story about a beautiful young girl who has an odd name and lives in a place called Schenectady. Foster mentions that if the names are weird, then things will end badly in his paper. The story is compared to winter because of the names. Since the names are bad, the story is too. The author says that since the names are bad the story ends up being bad as well. Foster says, “ ‘Once you pay attention to the name game, you pretty much know things will end badly, since daisies can’t flourish in winter, and things do’ ” (Foster 178).

Autumn….. Foster now compares life to autumn. Life is a growing season. Foster describes Frost’s crop as abundant meaning that Robert Frost has done many good things in his life, but he is very tired from the level of effort and focus it took to get there. Foster asks this question to the reader, “ ‘ Will autumn find us toting up our accomplishments or winding down, arriving at wisdom peace or being shaken by those November winds’ ” (Foster 181)?

Shakespeare Foster talks about Greek mythology and how it pertains to seasons. Foster says that early mythology the seasons change. Then Foster talks about a young woman who is very attractive and Hades, ruler of the underworld, is attracted to her and he forces her to live with him in the underworld. Persephone, the attractive lady, begs her mother Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, to help her but She doesn’t because Demeter can’t stand herself being selfish. There is a mysterious happening with the pomegranate seeds. Persephone realizes that Hades has been tricked by Demeter! The six uneaten seeds means that Persephone gets to return back to Earth for six months of every year. Demeter is happy about this so she lets the world grow and become fertile again, but she turns the world back into winter once Persephone returns to the underworld. Hades realizes that he has been beaten so he goes along with the plan. Foster says, “ ‘ Spring always follows winter, and we humans aren’t buried in perpetual winter and the olives ripen every year’ ” (Foster 182).

G.E. The weather in great expectations is used to describe Pip’s feelings and to see if something good or bad is about to happen. It isn’t winter when Pip is feeling bad when he leaves his family, but it feels like winter for him. He feels guilty for leaving when he sees Joe and Biddy taking a walk and thinking that they are talking about him. Foster says, “ ‘Summer is passion and love, winter is hatred and anger’ ” (Foster 177).

Life Foster compares the seasons with emotions by telling us that the authors use the seasons to build up their characters. During the summer, you don’t have to get up early every morning and go to school, you are on vacation, you can do whatever you want to do, and there isn’t a schedule that is already planned for you. During the wintertime, you have homework to do, places to go, people to see and impress, and you are more stressed out. So seasons are like life, once you have gone through the four phases, a year is gone.

Works Cited….. Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper- Collins Publishers, Inc.., Print.